Cooper sighed. ‘You’re right. I suppose I might be able to make more progress if I come at it from another angle.’

Fry leaned back in her chair. ‘And what if there never was another body? You might be approaching this from a false assumption, Ben. The explanation could be something much more prosaic.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well, imagine for a moment that something went badly wrong at the crematorium that day, and one or more people took a lot of trouble to cover it up. In other words, a cock-up rather than a conspiracy.’

‘No,’ said Cooper. ‘That’s a cock-up and a conspiracy.’

‘Whatever. But there might not have been an extra body to dispose of at all. Do you see what I mean?’

‘So whose ashes would be in Audrey Steele’s urn?’

Fry began to warm to her theory. ‘Maybe they just shared out the ashes that they already had. How many other cremations took place that day?’

‘Seven.’

‘Well, that’s enough, don’t you think? A few ashes from one cremation, a few from another. You’d soon have an extra urn full enough to convince a relative.’

‘Ashes from several bodies mixed together?’ said Cooper thoughtfully. ‘Mr Lloyd admitted himself it’s the biggest concern that families have at a cremation.’

‘There you go, then. Perhaps he has a guilty conscience.’

But Cooper shook his head. ‘Hold on, Diane – the computer records show a normal burn time and a normal weight of residue. I’ve got a printout in the file.’

‘Are you telling me that computer records can’t be falsified?’

‘If you knew what you were doing, I suppose…’

‘Well, before you go off looking for a murder victim who never existed, you might want to take a look at those other cremations,’ said Fry. ‘See if you can track down the ashes and let Forensics do some comparisons. All you need is one match between urns and your body-swap theory goes up in flames.’

Cooper looked at her to see if she was joking, but she wasn’t. ‘That’s going to take time, Diane.’

‘I know. But you don’t need to get anyone’s life story, just their urns – if they still have them.’

‘Even so –’

‘Ben, it’s preferable to the amount of time and resources that could be wasted if we initiate a futile murder enquiry.’

‘All right. I’ll get on to it.’

‘Fine.’

As Fry got up to leave, Cooper asked her: ‘By the way, is there any progress on the Birley enquiry?’

She nodded. ‘Right now, we’ve got Sandra Birley and her supposed abductor sitting in inter view rooms downstairs.’

‘Mrs Birley is alive and well?’

‘Very much so. And she has some explaining to do.’